I posted this idea year ago in alpha forum a year ago. ( https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=108860 )
I didn't get any response or feedback from site owners and developers (or if they read it I dont know) and I was suggesting to add a alpha chat / reviewer chat for BGA reviewer group (perhaps a chat box like left of general popup chat, only visible to BGA reviewers).
That would make life a bit easier to reach out to the reviewers to test and join an alpha game. You would also encourage other reviewers to join the game and add it to their review list and eliminate downtime for alpha games being stalled from low amount of playtesting.
Using Forum posts and group chat is very slow communication and its cumbersome to navigate there and you need to plan and set a time most often, or have friends, which not everyone has the time or is able to contribute when its needed.
I think more spontanious communication of alpha stage games will potencially speed up playtesting and bugreporting. Many alpha testers are keen on trying new games when someone is asking for players and it would benefit this site to get games ready faster for beta and release versions. There is always many BGA reviewers online. And they most likely have a few games put into their list and don't see games they don't have to their list and could encourage them to help out start reviewing more games that way. It does always popup games on the main general chat, so why not a testing chat?
This is especially important for slightly low activity alpha games to get them going.
Also the site don't want to reveal information about these alpha games to public, for several reasons and giving expectation where as each game isn't guaranteed of being released, so a group only accessed reviewer chat box for alpha testing would solve that also as all these testers has volunteeren to test new games.
My suggestion is to add a Alpha Chat / BGA Reviewer popup Chat (Left of General Messages) - hidden for the casual player
So what do you think about it?
I didn't get any response or feedback from site owners and developers (or if they read it I dont know) and I was suggesting to add a alpha chat / reviewer chat for BGA reviewer group (perhaps a chat box like left of general popup chat, only visible to BGA reviewers).
That would make life a bit easier to reach out to the reviewers to test and join an alpha game. You would also encourage other reviewers to join the game and add it to their review list and eliminate downtime for alpha games being stalled from low amount of playtesting.
Using Forum posts and group chat is very slow communication and its cumbersome to navigate there and you need to plan and set a time most often, or have friends, which not everyone has the time or is able to contribute when its needed.
I think more spontanious communication of alpha stage games will potencially speed up playtesting and bugreporting. Many alpha testers are keen on trying new games when someone is asking for players and it would benefit this site to get games ready faster for beta and release versions. There is always many BGA reviewers online. And they most likely have a few games put into their list and don't see games they don't have to their list and could encourage them to help out start reviewing more games that way. It does always popup games on the main general chat, so why not a testing chat?
This is especially important for slightly low activity alpha games to get them going.
Also the site don't want to reveal information about these alpha games to public, for several reasons and giving expectation where as each game isn't guaranteed of being released, so a group only accessed reviewer chat box for alpha testing would solve that also as all these testers has volunteeren to test new games.
My suggestion is to add a Alpha Chat / BGA Reviewer popup Chat (Left of General Messages) - hidden for the casual player
So what do you think about it?